Until he emerged as the private banking chief at Standard Chartered, the only von Daeniken I’d ever heard of before was Erich v D, the Swiss who decided that aliens visited us in the ancient past and found us all rather thick. He enshrined his ideas into that codswallop of a book, Chariots of the Gods.

Cynics will say that, at StanChart, Didier von Daeniken may be similarly relying on strange science of a Star Trek sort to set his latest ambitions – to near double client assets in coming years. Really, Didier, surely the engines canna take it any more?

Hold on, chums, that negative view is very unfair. Please give t...